So anybody who knows me, KNOWS that I absolutely like LOVE to exercise. I just started to take up running but usually you can find me lifting in the gym. So obviously I spread my love for exercise along to my students. It’s so funny, because at the end of last year, one of my end of the year gifts was a NIKE workout shirt and NIKE headbands. See…my students know exercise = Ms. Monroe. Anyways, enough of MY obsession with fitness.
I believe it is SO important for kids to be exposed to health and fitness in the classroom, at school, and at home. As teachers, we are these kids second parents (for some, we ARE their parents), so we have the biggest influence on our students. If we instill in them the importance of health and fitness, they will be healthier kids emotionally, physically, and mentally. There are so many studies that correlate exercise to intelligence.
SO HOW CAN WE INTEGRATE HEALTH AND FITNESS INTO OUR CLASSROOM?
The county I work in has a great fantastic health program called SHIP (School Health Initiative Program). We have SHIP teachers who come into our classrooms once a week and model lessons that incorporate health and fitness. We are so lucky to have such wonderful SHIP teachers to be great examples for our students and teach them about the importance of health and fitness…and guess what….THE KIDS LOVE IT!
There are so many games and activities you can use in your classroom to promote healthy eating and exercise.
# 1
Easy things like…whenever you do snacks or activities with food, try and use healthy snacks such as fruit, dried fruit, vegetables, pretzels, water, granola, etc. Another super easy thing that I do with my math word problems is use real life examples that describes my healthy life.
For example: Ms. Monroe went to the Farmers Market and bought 9 egg plants, 10 green peppers, and 7 cucumbers. How many vegetables did Ms. Monroe buy at the Farmers Market.
Another example: Ms. Monroe went to the gym at 5:00pm. She exercised for 2 hours. What time did Ms. Monroe leave the gym?
# 2
Give your students brain breaks! In the middle of a lesson, have your students stand up and perform an exercise, just to get them moving! I have a set of cards (that my wonderful SHIP teacher bought for me) with different exercises, and I will simply have a student come up and pick a card, and the entire class will perform the exercise. This will help them regain focus…and of course…THEY LOVE IT!
# 3
# 4
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Happy “Health and Fitness” Teaching!
<3 The Teacher Wears Prada

This is such a great idea!!! As a current student teacher, it is so great to see teachers incorporating movement in their lessons to aid in children's learning. Physical activity helps students reinforce topics that they might stuggle with, and exercise is a life-long passion that kids should be exposed to and allow to pursue from a young age. I have seen a few teachers incorporating medicine balls to replace chairs for students in elementary level classrooms and, when instructed appropriately about the uses of the medicine ball as a seat and not a toy, it helps children focus MORE rather than detract from the learning at hand; all while simultaneously encouraging movement and learning. Great ideas!!!!
Hi! Thanks for your comment and following my blog! I love the idea of using the stability balls instead of chairs! That's such a good idea and will definitely help with their posture too! I was thinking about getting those for my guided reading table, since they are probably expensive.
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Nesli, your blog is amazing, and the things that you create for your class and kiddos are incredible. What a creative way to incorporate movement into your classroom! athowell01@gmail.com
Thanks Addison! Thanks for checking out my blog!
llewellynkc@vcu.edu
Do you have any other education based blogs that you could reccommend? I am kinda new to the blog world, and would really like to get some new ideas for my own class. Thanks for the freebie!!!